PelicanHazard
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Feb 22, 2008
- Messages
- 2,507
- Location
- Pittsburgh, PA, USA
- Car(s)
- '13 Dart, '03 Ranger, '20 390 Duke, '22 K16GTL
So this one is not a regular car purchase.
My girlfriend's grandfather bought this truck secondhand for regular and frequent parts runs; he was part of an antique car club in Bloomington, IL and spent most of his days fixing up his own cars and helping others in the region with theirs for cruises, meets, and other such things. If you've been to a classic car meet within 5 hours of Bloomington in any direction, chances are you may have seen him or one of the dozens of cars he helped tune up, most prized to him being his 1940 Ford Pickup I got the chance to ride in the one time I met him (the review for that is here).
Sadly, he passed away this summer somewhat suddenly, leaving everything to his only child, my girlfriend's mother. And when I say everything, I mean everything. I can only surmise he didn't like throwing away anything, because his 4-car garage could only hold 1 car due to the sheer mass of tools, hardware, and spare parts cluttered everywhere, including two overflow sheds and a carport erected in front of the garage door. We even found a whole bunch of axles and driveshafts in the garage attic. My girlfriend's stepfather has been living in Bloomington since July holding weekly garage sales and moving parts to buyers during the week, on top of just giving me tools I don't know what to do with, and there's still a lot of parts left. So much that the house buyer already worked out a deal with them to keep selling the parts once they close on the house.
But the cars are the things they managed to secure pretty quickly. The classic cars he owned are going to various buyers across the region, and I was given this truck. For various reasons, my girlfriend's mother preferred the truck go to someone "in the family", as it were. So here it is.
It's a 2WD Ranger XLT Supercab, with the 3.0L Flex Fuel V6 and a 5-speed automatic. Not pictured is some damage on the passenger side to the front of the bed and rear door from a collision a few months before he passed. Near as Leadfoot and I could see, the bed damage is merely cosmetic, but the rear door scrapes against the cab when opening and closing due to the pushed-in panel. The rest of the truck minus the oversized tires is stock, though either grandfather or the previous owner installed a reverse warning beeper that I have to find and shut off because it's annoyingly loud when I'm trying to parallel park on this quiet street I live on. Grandfather most definitely installed the meat thermometer in the vents that you can see in the above photo, which I'm keeping as a small touch of the man. (Bonus that it indicated the AC is still very much capable of doing it's job.) Power windows and locks round out the inside, and my girlfriend got some joy out of riding in a vehicle with a sort-of bench seat. We're already putting it to a lot of use: It rescued my Dart when a weak battery made it act possessed, it went on a Home Depot trip to get long lengths of copper pipe for a craft project, and it made Leadfoot and a coworker of mine very jealous.
And yes, this makes it yet another red car in the family.
Proof pic:
My girlfriend's grandfather bought this truck secondhand for regular and frequent parts runs; he was part of an antique car club in Bloomington, IL and spent most of his days fixing up his own cars and helping others in the region with theirs for cruises, meets, and other such things. If you've been to a classic car meet within 5 hours of Bloomington in any direction, chances are you may have seen him or one of the dozens of cars he helped tune up, most prized to him being his 1940 Ford Pickup I got the chance to ride in the one time I met him (the review for that is here).
Sadly, he passed away this summer somewhat suddenly, leaving everything to his only child, my girlfriend's mother. And when I say everything, I mean everything. I can only surmise he didn't like throwing away anything, because his 4-car garage could only hold 1 car due to the sheer mass of tools, hardware, and spare parts cluttered everywhere, including two overflow sheds and a carport erected in front of the garage door. We even found a whole bunch of axles and driveshafts in the garage attic. My girlfriend's stepfather has been living in Bloomington since July holding weekly garage sales and moving parts to buyers during the week, on top of just giving me tools I don't know what to do with, and there's still a lot of parts left. So much that the house buyer already worked out a deal with them to keep selling the parts once they close on the house.
But the cars are the things they managed to secure pretty quickly. The classic cars he owned are going to various buyers across the region, and I was given this truck. For various reasons, my girlfriend's mother preferred the truck go to someone "in the family", as it were. So here it is.
It's a 2WD Ranger XLT Supercab, with the 3.0L Flex Fuel V6 and a 5-speed automatic. Not pictured is some damage on the passenger side to the front of the bed and rear door from a collision a few months before he passed. Near as Leadfoot and I could see, the bed damage is merely cosmetic, but the rear door scrapes against the cab when opening and closing due to the pushed-in panel. The rest of the truck minus the oversized tires is stock, though either grandfather or the previous owner installed a reverse warning beeper that I have to find and shut off because it's annoyingly loud when I'm trying to parallel park on this quiet street I live on. Grandfather most definitely installed the meat thermometer in the vents that you can see in the above photo, which I'm keeping as a small touch of the man. (Bonus that it indicated the AC is still very much capable of doing it's job.) Power windows and locks round out the inside, and my girlfriend got some joy out of riding in a vehicle with a sort-of bench seat. We're already putting it to a lot of use: It rescued my Dart when a weak battery made it act possessed, it went on a Home Depot trip to get long lengths of copper pipe for a craft project, and it made Leadfoot and a coworker of mine very jealous.
And yes, this makes it yet another red car in the family.
Proof pic:
